Cabrera's 40th HR leads Scherzer, Tigers over KC

Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera rounds the bases past Kansas City Royals third baseman Emilio Bonifacio, right, and umpire James Hoye, left, after hitting a two-run home run against the Kansas City Royals in the first inning of a baseball game on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Cabrera became just the third Tigers hitter with back-to-back 40-home run seasons, preceded by only Hank Greenberg in 1937-’38 (40 and 58) and Cecil Fielder in 1990-’91 (51 and 44). It’s the 11th time a Tigers hitter has had 40 homers in a season.

“Dear Miggy ... You’re making the rest of us look bad. ... Knock it off — MLB Hitters,” tweeted the Indians’ Jason Kipnis.

Former big leaguer and current MLB Network analyst Mike Lowell tweeted: “Miguel Cabrera doesn’t play baseball, he plays whiffle ball. Makes the game look so easy. Best hitter on the planet!!”

According to STATS, LLC, Cabrera joins Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx as the only players since 1921 with at least 120 RBI, 40 home runs and a .350 average in their first 116 games of a season.

“Every at-bat, every game, you want to do something good, because I think (the) people pay for that. That’s hard for us, but people pay for that, to see something. Not only me. It’s like the whole team. They’re paying to see something special,” Cabrera said, admitting that it’s really not that painful to run when he’s trotting around the bases.

“Man, when you hit a home run like that, you’re loose, smooth.”

It wasn’t just Cabrera teeing off on Royals starter Bruce Chen, who’d been such a puzzle for the Tigers to solve in recent years.

The Tigers added single runs in the third and fifth, making it 4-0.

Torii Hunter’s fly ball to right field with two outs in the third screwed Royals right fielder into the ground, and the ball bounced off the warning track and into the stands for a ground-rule double. Cabrera would drive him in with a single two pitches later.

After Jose Iglesias doubled to the left-center gap, Austin Jackson’s fly ball to right eluded Lough again, and Hunter would score Iglesias from third with a sacrifice fly.

Detroit pushed its lead to 6-0 in the sixth, using four straight hits from the bottom four spots in the lineup to score twice. Brayan Pena’s RBI double to dead center field brought in Andy Dirks and Ramon Santiago greeted reliever Louis Coleman with a single that scored Pena.

Max Scherzer (18-1) went eight innings for the win, giving up just two runs in the seventh on Salvador Perez’s RBI groundout and Emilio Bonifacio’s double. Billy Butler hit a leadoff home run in the ninth off Joaquin Benoit.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.